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Modern air travel is a headache for almost everyone. But when you have a new baby, you have to add a lot more to your mental checklist: balancing the baby?s nursing and nap schedules, trying to decipher the rules about liquids and bottles, and worrying about mid-flight meltdowns (not to mention the cumulative sleep deprivation, and the fact that you?re lugging a lot more stuff). We?ve all heard the horror stories of women who are ordered to dump bags of their pumped milk at security, even though they’re simply trying to feed their infants.
But what about being told you are not allowed to use your breast pump on the plane" Elizabeth Arnold, a Toronto mother of two travelling without her young children, recently found herself crying, shaking and overwhelmed after arguing for hours with a flight crew over access to an electrical socket needed to operate her breast pump. Arnold, who is nursing both her one-year-old and almost-two-year-old, was tagging along on her husband?s business trip to London when she was repeatedly told she could not use a plug to operate her breast pump due to the airline?s safety protocol. While the crew eventually relented, they first told Arnold to try manually expressing her milk. When that didn?t work, they arranged for her to switch seats temporarily for a paltry ?seven minutes? with the plug. She says more needs to be done to protect women?s rights when it comes to breastfeeding (or pumping) in the air.
?We shouldn?t be ...